To mark its 50th anniversary, The Institute for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (University of Toronto) is hosting a two-day conference in the history and philosophy of medicine. The program committee welcomes papers in any area of history and philosophy of medicine, but the main theme of this conference is “Persons and Populations.” We encourage papers that explore questions, such as the following:

Can information derived from populations be useful for decisions at the level of the individual patient?

When is it appropriate to deliver care at the level of the population rather than the individual? For example, are there ethical obligations to consider the public health of certain (sub-)populations?

When are patients actually treated as persons? Do such revelations highlight inequities in public/private healthcare systems?

Highlight of the conference include:

Professor Lucia Dacome (history of medicine, IHPST) will give a keynote address in
honour of the creation of the Pauline M. H. Mazumdar Chair in the History of Medicine

Mark Tonelli (University of Washington Medical Center) will give a keynote address
on “Do We Need a Philosophy of Medicine?”

Panel Discussion on “Persons and Populations”

Panel Discussion on “The History of Population Health”

Contributed papers in the form of extended abstracts of between one and two pages should be emailed by February 28, 2018 to IHPSTConference@gmail.com. Submissions will be reviewed and notification of acceptance will be given by March 7, 2018.

No fees are associated with this conference and it is open to the public. However, if you do plan to attend, please rsvp IHPSTConference@gmail.com so that we can plan accordingly. Copies of the finalized programme will be send by email on March 15 to participants and to individuals who rsvp IHPSTConference@gmail.com

Programme Committee:
Brian Baigrie (IHPST, University of Toronto)
Mat Mercuri (Department of Medicine, McMaster University and IHPST, University of Toronto)
Ross Upshur (Dalla Lana Faculty of Public Health, University of Toronto)
Jennifer Fraser (IHPST, University of Toronto)

Organizing Committee:
Yiftach Fehige (IHPST, University of Toronto)
Muna Salloum (IHPST, University of Toronto)
Chen-Pang Yeang (IHPST, University of Toronto)